Primate Review

 

Alright first movie review of 2026. So cross your fingers and hope I got a lot of positive things to say.

Primate is a natural horror movie that's produced by 18hz Productions with Paramount Pictures being the distributor. Johnanes Roberts directed and wrote the screenplay with Ernest Riera.

The story is, a group of friends are on vacation and having some tropical fun along the way. During this vacation the friends are introduced to the family pet, a chimp named Ben. What should've been fun under the sun turned deadly when Ben is bitten by a rabid animal and because increasingly violent. Now this is no longer a vacation, but a fight for survival.

Initial Reaction

Now I by no means had any plans to see this movie at first. Not because I thought it was gonna be bad, but because I didn't know it existed. But thankfully with the power of YouTube, I saw an ad for this movie and thought "Hey that could be a fun movie". I also thought "Hey an ad break that didn't piss me off". So I decided to see this and hope it would deliver.

Cons

I got nothing.

Middle Ground

Now let me state first by saying yes, this is a fun movie. It provides you exactly what you'd expect from a movie about a killer chimp infected with rabies. Crazy murderous chimp ✔, brutal kills ✔, doesn't over stay it's welcome ✔✔. However even with that there really isn't anything that's truly gonna blow you away. You can where a lot of the story will go. So if here people say this is Cujo but with a monkey, they're not wrong. But like I said previously there's a lot of fun to be had here. Cause as I've stated before and I'll continue to stay many times afterwards, even if your story as some predictable beats just make sure you never bore the audience. And Primate didn't bore me.

Pros

Let's praise the biggest star of this movie and that's the practical effects. Now yes some CGI was used but this movie is mainly practical effects. You get kills with get gory effects like faces being ripped off, jaws being pulled apart, and really savage mauling. But what I loved most of all were the effects on Ben. They didn't use a real ape, Ben is just one big special effect. The filmmakers did an amazing job blending puppetry and incredible suit work from Miguel Torres Umba. Seriously give big props to Miguel, he was amazing. Cause I could've sworn the parts where the ape is moving I think it was a real one but no, that was Umba. So if you're a fan of practical effects this is a movie for you, provided you're also a fan of horror movies. Now remember how I said this movie doesn't overstay it's welcome? Well that was true. The movie clocks in at one hour and twenty-nine minutes but it didn't felt like I was sitting in my seat for an hour. This movie has greatly tight pacing. It's a swift movie to get through. The last thing I'll praise is this was giving me a serious B-movie vibe. This movie clearly embraces a premise that a lot people will find silly (despite the fact there's plenty of stories of chimps actually ripping people apart). But when I was watching this I just couldn't help but be reminder of those made-for-television animal attack films that I'd watch on SyFy when I was a kid. Like Copperhead, Locusts: The 8th Plague, and Blood Monkey. Only this movie isn't as gimmicky and had a budget unlike those movies. But the point I'm trying to get at is, this is just movie feels like a B-movie but in the best possible way and when it's release to DVD, Blu-Ray, and streaming you can gather your friends and have a fun group watch party.

While Primate isn't the most original movie, it still provides lots of entertainment especially when it feels like an old school creature feature.

My final rating is, Good.

Alright movie reviewing wise, great way to start of 2026. Come back on Monday, Jan 12th, for a brand new Is It True? For that one I'll be tackling a very popular Stranger Things fan theory. Pretty sure you all know what it is. But until then, enjoy the rest of your day.